Breaking Down the Hidden World
by JustANormalHTTYDFan
Summary: HTTYD THW really...really doesn't work with HTTYD1 and 2' themes and Hiccup and Toothless' bond...and honestly, isn't a true satisfying conclusion to their character arc.


**Ok, this is my breakdown of HTTYD THW...well, more like complete and utter DESTRUCTION. I will be TEARING this film apart and showing YOU how DIFFERENT it is from HTTYD 1 and 2 that you'll never be able to watch it the same way again...EVER.**

**PART 1: THE FILM STANDING ON ITS OWN**

**The film does work...as a story. Somewhat.**

**If you forget HTTYD1 and 2's themes and messages, and just go into Dragons 3/THW expecting more dragon action and mindless fun, you'll get that. Will you get a meaningful message? Yes, just not in the same way as HTTYD1 or 2, and not a message that I, as a die-hard fan of HTTYD, can accept.**

**The animation in The Hidden World is...well, it's definitely HTTYD's best in a LOT of ways, but the textures...honestly seem just a tiny bit too...uncanny. A tiny bit too rubbery and clean.**

**The sound design and the music...perfect, I can LITERALLY find almost no flaws with these two. The only thing I would have wished for is for more memorable soundtracks, but honestly, I had this problem with HTTYD 2 but on a lesser scale (With HTTYD1, this problem is non existent, I can remember This is Berk and Downed Dragon perfectly, and the Battle of the Green Death and others well. HTTYD1's soundtrack is completely memorable, HTTYD2 is just lacking a tiny bit, but it still has a ton of tracks I can remember, such as Two New Alpha's and Stoick's Ship).**

**But now, I didn't come here to gripe about music or animation...no no...I came to talk about the story, both from the perspective of a fan, a fanfiction writer, and a PROFESSIONAL writer.**

**HTTYD THW is a story about letting go, standing on your own, and growing up. While sometimes these themes can work, and the third theme is already one HTTYD2 worked towards...I can say that this movie achieves the themes it was going for.**

**Too bad it was going for the wrong themes.**

**PART 2: THE THEMES OF THE HIDDEN WORLD**

**The themes of the Hidden World...do NOT work with the HTTYD trilogy.**

**That's the Tl;dr of it, but here's the full breakdown of what I mean EXACTLY.**

**HTTYD THW themes are about letting go, standing on your own (Or "Flying on your own" as the trailer puts it) and growing up.**

**However, if your a new fan to HTTYD, let me just tell you that those are NOT the same themes from the first and second movies. Not even close (Except for the third, that ones the ONLY theme that actually semi fits semi fails...)**

**HTTYD1 and 2's message is about friendship, working together, peace, and growing up. HTTYD1 and 2, at its core, is about the UNBREAKABLE bond between a scrawny Viking and a ferocious (Yet sometimes/a lot of the time lovable) Night Fury.**

**HTTYD1 and 2's bond between Hiccup and Toothless is so unbreakable, UNSHATTERABLE that even Stoick's DEATH from a Mind Controlled Toothless was not able to break it, in fact, it just made them stronger. HTTYD1 and 2 taught us that if you work together, ANYTHING is possible.**

**In HTTYD1 and 2, we see these two equal individuals with distinct personalities (The sarcastic yet selfless Hiccup, and the overprotective yet extremely curious Toothless) working together as one collective whole, as two parts of each other. There was NO Hiccup without Toothless, and NO Toothless without Hiccup.**

**Hiccup and Toothless are shown as being two halves of one whole, two PEOPLE in their own respective ways that would fight to hell and back for each other, two people who are so similar yet distinct. Hiccup said in HTTYD1 "I wouldn't kill him...because he looked as frightened as I was...I looked at him...and I saw myself..."**

**Yet, in HTTYD THW, its theme is about these two GROWING APART. And it JUST IS NOT SATISFYING when putting alongside 1 and 2.**

**In HTTYD THW, when we start, even though in HTTYD1 and 2 we got to see the Riders working with each other and their dragons just fine, Valka states at the beginning that they need to work better without their dragons.**

**Also, HTTYD THW completely butchers Toothless' character. I was SO excited when I heard Toothless would be getting more of a center stage in HTTYD THW, which got me more excited for this...only to be disappointed at the changes.**

**Toothless...is not a person in HTTYD THW, they show Toothless acting like a pet (Hiccup talking to him like one would a dog, Hiccup throwing his leg like an owner would a toy for their pet) and Hiccup like an owner, and this is COMPLETELY different from their friendship/bond as EQUALS in the two previous films, where we got to see lots of evidence that proves that, even though Toothless is not human, he is still a person in his own way (He can draw, he can understand practically everything said to him, he can come up with ideas, he can feel complex emotions beyond that of an animal)**

**Such a sudden character change is not just character butchering, but BAD WRITING. Changing a character from one movie to the next with no explanation or reason was given, and even trying to somehow go back and say that THIS is how it always been with them, is just lazy and BAD writing.**

**Also, Hiccup, his character was...well, he GAVE UP at the end. The Hiccup we know who would fight for peace because its what's right over taking the easy path (HTTYD1, he could have killed Toothless in the forest...but he didn't). Yet in HTTYD THW, when they have just saved the day and are now on an island which not even Grimmel could find until Ruffnut practically broke all non-spoiler rules and gave it away, decides NOW is the best time to send the dragons away?**

**Also, can we just talk about the Hidden World for a moment? That place is a COMPLETE and UTTER mind-f##k on so many levels. How do they get oxygen? Food? Fresh Water?**

**You could explain the first and possibly the third, but we see NO EXPLANATIONS for the second. Also, the Hidden World is practically another cage, just a bigger one. They save the dragons from one cage only to put them in another bigger one called the Hidden World, albeit the Dragons CHOOSE to go there.**

**Also, the Light Fury, I was hoping we would get SOME reason why this ONE SPECIFIC Light Fury is the one Toothless happened to fall in love with? What's her personality? Traits? What does she do when not flying around and waiting for Toothless to show up and progress the plot along?**

**Also, Hiccup and Toothless separating. It was the single worst decision of the entire film. Now that Toothless has his 'responsibility' as King of the Dragons (WTF? WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? Last time I checked, he was only the Alpha of the Berk pack...now he's the Alpha/King of the entire F##KING SPECIES?!) and a mate, he 'doesn't need Hiccup' and thus, shouldn't stay around any longer.**

**Also, the line "You've protected us for long enough" is SO. STUPID. Toothless didn't stay on Berk to protect it from...what? Nightmares? No, he stayed because of his friendship with Hiccup, because he loved and cared about his human best friend. And now that Toothless has a mate and a 'responsibility', that means he doesn't need him anymore and can just go twaddle off?**

**Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.**

**If you can't tell, I was ranting there. I've had this all built up since Feb 2nd when I saw an early screening of HTTYD THW and I've been denying this since Feb 21/22nd, and now I JUST NEED TO GET IT out. From now on, I will be more collective and calm headed...hopefully.**

**Toothless and Hiccup's sudden character changes, and the re-writes to their entire friendship/bond, is not just bad writing...but bad IDEAS in general. With no build up or sudden expectation, the second Toothless sees a Light Fury he's heads over heals/tails for her and is less protective of Hiccup (If the Light Fury had shot at Hiccup and Toothless was not being character butchered, he 100% would have fricking obliterated her in a second for just shooting NEAR Hiccup, let alone attempting to KILL him)**

**HTTYD THW just feels like a butchering of HTTYD's story and theme's...I can still watch and love 1 and 2, and those films will always hold a special place in my heart. But this? This doesn't put a smile on my face for ruining the themes and the MEANING of their bond, which, in my honest opinion, is the MEANING of the franchise.**

**And then that leads to the ROOT of the problem...Dean Deblois and the Ending, and the Books, and the Villains.**

**PART 3: THE ENDING IS OFF KEY**

**I bet you're wondering what I mean by "The root of the problem is the Ending and Dean Deblois", well, listen up...**

**HTTYD1 and 2 never ONCE hinted towards the ending being the same as the books, never ONCE did we get "There were dragons when I was a boy" like in the books.**

**In the books THIS WORKS, because it was set up from page one of HTTYD' first-ever book, the very first words already tell you the ending of the series. But in the movies, there were zero hints of the Dragons leaving until the Hidden World came out, in fact, HTTYD1 and 2 built towards a world WITH Dragons. HTTYD2's ending line was "WE HAVE OUR DRAGONS!" and the line before it being perfect for showing the sudden change "We may be small in numbers, but we stand for something bigger than ANYTHING the world could pit against us. We are the voice of peace, and bit by bit, WE WILL CHANGE THIS WORLD"**

**This sudden change is bad writing, and this all ties back to Dean Deblois, and his choice to honor the books and having the films end with the Dragons being "No more"**

**This choice is the one thing that probably doomed HTTYD THW to what I explained earlier, this sudden change lead to Dean Deblois having to butcher the characters to get the story to fit the themes needed to lead to the ending he wanted to go for.**

**Also, there is the fact that Valka was originally gonna be HTTYD2' villain and Drago was to be saved for The Hidden World/3. But since Drago was pushed forward, Dean had to come up with a new villain to fill the empty slot left by Drago, which meant he had the stress of creating a villain to live up to Drago as well as surpass him (Which he kinda failed at, lets be honest, Grimmel's plans work because of sheer luck and stupidity from the Twins...otherwise, Grimmel would fail)**

**The sudden ending change, the character butchering, and the villain swap as well as one man being PRESSURED with ending this nearly close to nine/ten year series of films was probably the straws that broke the camel's back.**

**And before you state the Light Fury is Toothless' "Call to the wild", that is total and utter dragon crap and YOU KNOW IT. Toothless has never shown to want to be on his own, in Gift of the Night Fury, Toothless was given the choice of not wanting to need Hiccup, but he chose to stay with Hiccup. Not because of some 'responsibility', but because he cared about Hiccup.**

**So, ultimately, not only does HTTYD THW undermine the first two movies and set itself up for a face-plant, but it also completely makes the Gift of the Night Fury short (Which was the most beautiful twenty minutes of a short I've ever had the pleasure to see) redundant by making it seem as if "Toothless had no reason to need the Auto-Tail" back then.**

**So, to sum it up...**

**Tl;dr - HTTYD THW completely betrays the themes of HTTYD1 and 2, and changes Toothless and Hiccup's characters and bond too much to fit with 1 and 2 properly.**

**Also, might do a plot re-write...who knows? Probably not, I got to many stories going already...**

**But anyways, JustANormalHTTYDFan, over and out.**


End file.
